Week of Raw Food

Today starts a week of raw food - it has been quite awhile since we have done a raw week and a friend of mine on Facebook is doing it so I decided to do it, too!  It is the best time of the year to do a raw cleanse - all the garden produce is coming in everyday and my herb garden is growing wild.   The weather also makes it a good time - no cooking means I won't be heating up the kitchen.
I have some basic raw food equipment.  I have a Champion Juicer that we use to make fresh juice every morning (we do this even when we aren't eating raw).  I also have a spiralizer that makes "angel hair pasta" from zucchini, as well as a food processor and blender.   I don't have a Vitamix or a dehydrator - if I were to commit to the raw foodist lifestyle I would buy them but I don't really have room for them in my small kitchen.   I guess if I were commited to being 100% raw I could store them in my oven!

This is not a very good shot of my spiralizer.

I bought all my raw nuts and seeds at Trader Joe's - they are much cheaper there than anywhere else I have found. 

I started preparing a few things for our raw week yesterday (Sunday).   I made a raw vegan cashew cheese and it requires a 24 hour fermentation period.   It is delicious and I will be using it in a few different ways this week.   I will post pictures of this tomorrow.

Conquering Lion Live Cashew Cheese

Ingredients

2 C Cashews
1 C Filtered water
1/3 C Red bell pepper, diced
2½ Tbl Green onion, diced
2 Tbl Cilantro, minced
1 tsp Garlic, minced (optional)
3 tsp shoyu, or to taste
1/2 tsp Sea salt, or to taste
Pinch Crushed red pepper flakes

Preparation

1. Blend cashews with filtered water until very smooth. Place in a ½ gallon open-mouthed glass jar. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and secure with a rubber band. Cover with a towel and allow to sit in a warm place overnight.

2. Pour cashew mixture into a large mixing bowl, combine with remaining ingredients and mix well. I pulse mine a few times in the Vitamix.Refrigerate and serve with flax crackers, veggies, over salad or as a spread for Nori wraps, yum!

Variations

• Delicious when made with macadamia nuts or pine nuts.
• Blend 1 C of chopped red pepper with cultured cashew mixture, before adding the remaining ingredients.
• Replace cilantro with other fresh herbs.
• Add ¼ C grated carrots or beets.
• Replace bell pepper with other fresh veggies.

Serving suggestions

• Use as a dip for Flax Crackers.
• Use as a spread in Live Nori Rolls or scoop into a salad.

I love this dressing.  It is probably the only recipe I have ever made that tastes better with dried herbs than fresh ones.   When I make it with fresh herbs it gives it too much of a "bite" that I don't like.  I made this up ahead so it would be ready when we need it for our lunch salad.

Raw Vegan Ranch Dressing

·         ½ cup almonds (about two handfuls), soaked 24-48 hours

·         1 clove garlic

·         1/4 cup lemon juice

·         3 T dried parsley (or more if you prefer)

·         ½ T dried dill

·         1/2 T dried thyme

·         1/2 T dried sage

·         1/2 T oregano

·         squirt agave (optional)

·         3 T olive oil

·         1/2 cup water

·         splash raw apple cider vinegar

·         salt & pepper to taste

Be sure to rinse your almonds very, very well. Soaking them for 24 hours is probably enough, but I don’t have a Vita Mix, and find my poky blender does better if they’ve been soaking longer. Add the almonds, water, lemon juice and vinegar and blend really well, next add everything else, stopping to scrape down the sides if your herbs get all crazy.

You may find this to be a little thick to use as a salad dressing (though perfect for dipping cruditiés). Just add a little water to thin it out.

This morning we had a 16 ounce glass of juice each made of carrots, granny smith apples, and radishes.   We buy our carrots at Publix, they sell a 25 pound bag of organic carrots for $14.99 - they are cheaper there than anywhere else we have found.  The cashiers tell me they sell a lot of those big bags.

We took a bowl of black cherries to work to munch on throughout the morning and hold us over until lunch.   They are really great for lowering uric acid levels. My goal is to keep everything 100% fat free until lunch time.  We only eat fruits in the morning.   Believe it or not, I don't really like sweets or fruit that much!

So the final menu for Monday was carrot/granny smith apple/radish juice for breakfast, a bowl of black cherries each for a morning snack- a HUGE salad at Whole Foods salad bar for lunch, zucchini alfredo and a side salad for dinner.